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Trois Leçons de Ténèbres

Introduction

The Trois Leçons de Ténèbres were amongst the small amount of Couperin’s ecclesiastical music that was published during his lifetime, and appeared in print between 1713 and 1717. The name ‘Tenebrae’ probably refers to the darkness that gradually spread during the service. Fifteen candles, fitted on a triangular frame, were extinguished one by one until Matins ended in darkness. The text, from the Lamentations of Jeremiah, was traditionally sung at Matins on Maundy Thursday, with other sections of the Lamentations performed on Good Friday and Holy Saturday, making a total of nine Leçons. It was normal to advance the office of Matins on these days to the previous afternoon, which explains the heading on the three published Leçons of ‘pour le Mercredy’. Puzzling, however, is the lack of the other six Leçons, for Couperin makes reference to their imminent appearance in print, and states that those for the Friday had been written some years previously: the second harpsichord book, published in 1717, also makes reference to the full nine settings.

Couperin’s Leçons are intensely personal, depicting Jeremiah’s bitter anguish in settings that are quite unique. The sections of declamatory ‘récitatif’ and arioso are descendents of the ‘tragédie lyrique’, but Couperin also adheres to tradition in setting the ‘incipits’ in plainsong formula, and in setting the Hebrew letters of the alphabet that punctuate the text as melismas. The contrast of these flowing sections with the main text, amongst which the melismas sound almost nonchalant, is a deliberate act on Couperin’s part: the letters act as a poignant foil to the overt expressiveness of Jeremiah’s lament. Each Leçon ends with Jeremiah’s words to the people of the Holy City, ‘Jerusalem, turn to the Lord your God’. The music has, within its own self-imposed limits, an intensity and power rarely found in baroque church music.

The first two Leçons are for solo voice: the third is a duet. The music was originally scored for two soprano voices but, following Couperin’s suggestion that ‘all other types of voices may sing them’ (and instructing the accompanying players to transpose), the editions used in this recording transpose the music down a fifth.

ALEPH How solitary sits the city that was full of people!
She is as a widow, who once was mistress of the nations;
princess among the provinces, she must make tribute.

BETH She has wept bitterly in the night
and her tears are on her cheeks;
she has no one to comfort her from all her lovers,
all her friends have turned against her
and have become her enemies.

GIMEL Judah has left her homeland because of her great affliction
and because of great servitude;
she lives among the heathen and finds no rest:
all her persecutors have taken her in the midst of the straight paths.

DALETH The ways of Sion mourn, for no one comes
to the solemn feasts:
all her gates are broken down,
her priests lament,
her virgins are desolate,
and she is oppressed with bitterness.

HETH Her adversaries have become her masters,
her enemies prosper;
for the Lord has decreed against her
for the multitude of her transgressions.
Her children have been led into captivity,
in front of the oppressor.

VAU And from the daughter of Sion
all beauty has departed;
her princes have become like harts searching
for their pastures;
and flee without strength
before the pursuer.

ZAIN Jerusalem remembered in the days of her distress,
and all her misery, the pleasant things she had
in earlier days, when the people fell into the hands
of the enemy and she found no help outside.
The enemies saw her, and mocked her sabbaths.

HETH Jerusalem has sinned grievously,
therefore she has collapsed.
All who once honoured her now despise her:
because they have seen her dishonour.
She laments and turns away.

TETH Her skirts are dirty,
she cannot remember her own end:
her disgrace is complete,
she has no comforter:
see, O Lord, my affliction,
for the enemy has become self-important.

JOD The enemy has put out his hand
to everything that Jerusalem considers precious;
she has seen the gentiles enter her sanctuary;
you commanded that they should not enter your church.

CAPH All her people sigh,
and seek bread,
they have given all their precious things for food
to relieve their souls.
See, O Lord, and consider for I have become vile.

LAMED O all you who pass by, stop,
and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow;
for the Lord has ruined me, as he said he would
in the day of his raging fury.

MEM From above he has sent fire into my bones,
and has chastised me: he has made a net under my feet,
and turned me back: he has made me desolate
and overburdened with sorrow all day long.

NUN The yoke of my iniquities weighs me down;
they are folded together in his hand and made into a collar;
my strength is weakened;
the Lord has delivered me into the hands
of those from whom I cannot rise up.